Sudden Death

[vangle]

Hi,
My PC was working absolutely fine yesterday, no issues at all.
There popped up a Windows update and I set it to 'Update and Shut Down' just as I was heading to sleep for the night.
I checked on it after about 30 minutes and sure enough, it had shut itself down.

Came to turn my PC back on this morning and it won't boot at all. I don't even get a beep from the motherboard and the BIOS won't even appear.
The PC is on and running, lights on, fans running, drives active but none of the peripherals are active. Screens are both off (Dual screen) and lights on mouse, keyboard or speakers are all off.

PC Spec:
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3
AMD FX 8320
Corsair CW-9060024-WW Hydro Series H80i V2 120 mm High Performance All-In-One Liquid CPU Cooler
Physical Memory : 16384 MB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
120BG SSD
1TB SSD
2x 2TB HDD
EVGA Supernova G2 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply

Had a read around and most of the suggestions seem to point to either a PSU or a motherboard issues. The motherboard and CPU however are much older than the PSU.
Tried all the suggestions, even to the point of disconnecting absolutely everything and then just setting up the PSU, motherboard and CPU, one stick of RAM, graphics card, screen and keyboard. All to no avail.
Anything else to try? Also, suggestions on new gear to replace if needed?

My thanks

 

[vangle]

Nope not at all! I though it might have been a motherboard battery issue too and took it out for 10 mins or so as I was disassembling everything before putting it back in and starting it back up.

 

[vangle]

Thanks for the responses! I was contemplating just getting a new motherboard set up anyway as, like you said, I've had a hell of a run with these but they could certainly do with replacing! Any suggestions for a motherboard and CPU around the £300/400 mark? Or shall I just move it over to the motherboards section?

 

[vangle]

What do you actually use it for?

The above AMD suggestion is pretty sound, you could even squeeze in an nvme drive if you push it to the max £400 range.. or you could go for a 5700x for 2 more cores and stay just about within £400. Really does depend on what you're going to use it for though.

Mostly gaming and some light image editing but nothing too extreme

 

[vangle]

The

MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard​

Seems to only be on pre-order sadly. Anything else you could recommend around the same quality and price?

 

[vangle]

Sorry it was in stock when I suggested it. Stock for B550 mobos is very scarce on OCUK, I would suggest you shop around for the one above or the Msi B550M mortar which is £10 more expensive on OCUK but also out of stock.

No worries! I appreciate the recommendations!

What do you think of

MSI PRO B550M-P GEN3 Motherboard, Micro-ATX, AM4 - AMD Ryzen 5000 Ready - DDR4 Boost 4400+MHz/OC, PCIe 3.0 x16 Slot, 1 x M.2 Gen3 Slot, 1G LAN​

 

[vangle]

Thanks for all the suggestions and help! Much appreciated. Went for the 5600 for now just to save some current cost (Xmas was mean) with 8gb RAM on a MSI MAG B550M MORTAR MAX. Hopefully it fixes the issue! If not it'll be time for yet another PSU!

 

[vangle]

Might be worth checking the warranty duration on it if you do need to replace it, it seems to be 7 years from what I can tell. EVGA are usually pretty good when it comes to warranties from what I've seen.

Unfortunately I can't find the purchase information! But I've slapped in the new motherboard, hooked it all up with the new CPU and cooler, 16GB new RAM and then my old PSU and graphics card.
Still no luck though. Same issue is happening so I guess it is the PSU after all!

 

[vangle]

Unfortunately I can't find the purchase information! But I've slapped in the new motherboard, hooked it all up with the new CPU and cooler, 16GB new RAM and then my old PSU and graphics card.
Still no luck though. Same issue is happening so I guess it is the PSU after all!

Think it would be worth getting a new 650W PSU? Or future proof a touch and go for 750/850w?

 

[vangle]

I'd probably go 850w, it gives you a bit of extra room if you decide to upgrade the gpu etc and even if not it will likely be in the sweet spot for efficiency and no fan mode if it has it.

You could contact EVGA and ask them if they have any reference/info on the psu age (I had to upload my receipt for my gpu when I purchased it for example) or if they're prepared to go via the serial or something... worth a shot even if you buy a new one.

Yeah kinda what I was thinking with the 850w! Any suggestions of brand/model? Or are most PSU's about as good as each other?

Yeah EVGA seem really pleasant and helpful from what I've heard! Having a back up fresh 650w would always be handy just in case. I'll give it a shot.

 

[vangle]

I'm currently running a corsair rmx850 (2021) and it seems fine with current set up of a 5950x and 1060 6gb (the fan hardly ever comes on but it's so quiet I'd likely miss it anyway).... it should be fine for your setup imo.

Sounds good! Thanks, I'll have a look!

I did just see Kolink Continuum 1050W 80+ Platinum Modular Power Supply on sale which would absolutely be overkill for now, but think it'd be worth it for that price?

 

[vangle]

So a 5600 non-X, with a GTX 970? Yeah, 1000 watts is insane for that build 650 would be fine, but 750 or 850 would be nice, to give a bit of headroom for a high-end GPU, as you said.

Ended up with 16gb RAM and a Corsair RM750 PSU as I found one nearby on sale!
1000 did seem like MASSIVELY overkill haha

But yeah, new mobo, new cpu and cooler, new RAM, new PSU... Same issue! After replacing literally everything else, it might actually be the GTX 970 that gave up the ghost...

With nothing else plugged in aside from mobo, cpu + cooler and ram, I get the 1 long beep and 2 short beeps from the mobo so at least there is life! As soon as the gpu goes in though, zero response... Tried the graphics card in both slots too just incase and the ram in all 4 slots with and without the gpu in both pcie slots

I am in the same boat. Left my machine installing Januarys windows update and the following day wouldn't stay up for 5 minutes after switching on. Even wouldn't sit in the bios screen without rebooting. Suspect a failing 3 year old RX5700XT

Guess you got it right in the first place Moto!

 

[vangle]

Are you giving your new rig long enough to boot up? The first boot process can take a fair while with ryzen.

Well, unless it takes over 30 minutes with zero beeps or response from the mobo.. I think so! I thought something like that might be the case so I left it going for a while just to see

Played around with some combinations and now I'm getting the same response of 1 long beep then 2 short beeps when I have my 1x16gb ram stick in by itself AND when I have the ram in with my gpu

 

[vangle]

Assuming this is the borrd you meant (or the black non wifi version)

MSI MAG B550M MORTAR MAX WIFI AMD AM4 DDR4 Lightning Gen 4 M.2 HDMI WiFi6E mATX Gaming Motherboard

Powered by AMD Ryzen AM4 processors, the MSI MAG B550M MORTAR MAX WiFi inspired by the military armor design, tuned for better performance by Core boost, DDR4 Boost, WiFi 6E, Lightning Gen 4 M.2 with M.2 Shied, 2oz copper PCB

www.msi.com

I've never had beeps from my mortar (I have the linked board) but I have seen the error lights.... so do you have any error lights showing. They should be top right corner between the 24pin power and the a pwm fan header.

Next to the 24pin power are the 4 light, I get a brief red light on CPU, then a longer red light on VGA followed by a constant red light on BOOT

The 3 1 long beep then 2 short beeps happen during the red light on VGA

 

[vangle]

Red light on BOOT is basically moaning about not being able to load an OS.... you either need to install OS and/or make sure it can find the boot drive with the OS already installed on it... double check boot order

1+2 beeps does seem to link back to the gpu being an issue, is it seated correctly, all connected correcly, display cable plugged in.... does it show any sign of life on boot, fan spin etc

I have an SSD with my OS installed on it already which I've been plugging in during tests to see if it would boot to that but I can't even load to BIOS so I can't check boot order or anything. Still happens with just 1 SATA cable plugged into a single hard drive

Yeah, I've made sure its all in correctly, locking switch is up on the mobo to ensure its locked into the slot, checked with 2 different cables which came with the new PSU and in different ports, fans are spinning and lights are on too

 

[vangle]

hmm if everything has spun up then something is clearly 'working' in the gpu.....have you tried different outputs, hdmi instead of display port and/or checked every port because it's entirely possible for one output to be fried and the rest fine etc.

Does the card have dual bios or something similar to a 'clear cmos' option.

Other than that it's trying another card, either buying one or trying to borrow one (this sort of troubleshooting is why I keep a spare gpu around)

Okay, good news! If me being an idiot counts. I've been using my primary monitor during these tests which has been a HDMI. Both the mobo and the gpu have HDMI ports so been alternating between them for testing purposes. Dragged down an old monitor from upstairs with a VGA cable. LO AND BEHOLD! We have BIOS!
Now just gotta figure out how to make it boot from my drive which already has an OS installed :`)

Also, the BIOS has a setting to enable POST beep which was disabled by default I've just enabled it for myself for peace of mind!

 

[vangle]

The motherboard HDMI doesn't do anything with the non G ryzen chips, there's no onboard graphics on your cpu so you'll never get anything out of that port... should have thought about this myself to be honest lol

So VGA works on your gpu, does the hdmi cable (maybe need a new one?) work when plugged into the gpu?

As for getting the boot. Working from memory here - You've got some icons on the bios home page near the top right, iirc they're drag and drop for boot order so just move your drive to the start. XMP1 and XMP2 quick links should be top left, click them for your xmp ram speed.


Once that's all sorted you can play around with infinity fabric (match to 1/2 ram speed - 3600mhz ram = 1800mhz infinity fabric) and the likes

I didnt think it had any onboard graphics but the port was there and there was no harm in trying it so thought it might be worth a shot! Haha

I have a spare HDMI around somewhere but I'm going to sort that out once I get past BIOS and into my OS

Yeah the Boot Option #1 is already set to UEFI Hard Disk and all my hard drives have been recognized in the BIOS hardware but it doesn't seem to want to recognize an OS on any of my drives... might just have to download something and try a boot from USB or install a new OS

Never actually played about with infinity fabric! Another thing to play with once everything is up and running

 

[vangle]

weird, have you tried with just the os drive plugged in?

I've got this vague recollection of there being issues with some setups when the drive is using mbr rather than gpt and you need to change a setting to allow compatibility etc.. My drives were all fresh so no idea on that one though.


ftpm might be another issue - personally I have this turned off (windows 10 anyway) because it was causing some micro stutters, even with the latest bios.


Don't forget your pbo and curve optimiser etc too

Just a side note - your bios will probably reset when you do a bios update (mine did) so make sure you take note of all your settings.

Think I've just about got her working! For now at least!
Played about with some BIOS settings but I think the one that did it was in Settings/Advanced/Windows OS Configuration then swapping the BIOS mode from UEFI to CSM which seemed to allow the boot!

One thing at a time! Haha

A VERY good idea! Taking a picture of every setting I change JUST INCASE!